Minnesota Wild: Young players have been a bright spot

Now that the Wild have had a good look at Nino Niederreiter, they have more expectations of him. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

When training camp opened five weeks ago, coach Mike Yeo had a good idea of what to expect from most of his roster.

He'd even spent time coaching many of the team's young players like Mikael Granlund and Jason Zucker.

But there were a few -- notably, Nino Niederreiter -- whom the coach was in the dark on. So Yeo said he tried to keep an open mind and not attach many expectations to their games.

Nine games in, with the Wild 3-3-3 and fighting scoring woes, more expectations are being attached to Niederreiter.

"I can say that now that we've seen him is we have some expectations," Yeo said. "What we expect of him is certainly we want to see some numbers; we want to see some offense. But he's got to be a big presence on the ice. He's got to be controlling pucks along the wall. He's got to be using his size and his speed and his shooting ability. And we've been able to see that in parts of every game, at least."

Niederreiter is one of several youngsters -- including Mathew Dumba, Jonas Brodin and Granlund -- whom the Wild are relying on to provide secondary scoring and take some pressure off a snake-bitten roster and frustrated top line.

Heading into a stretch in which they will play six of their next seven games in St. Paul, the Wild need to right an anemic offense. Goals will come from the top line, they believe, but they're going to need secondary scoring to win games.

That starts with the two forwards in that quartet -- Niederreiter and Granlund.

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Saturday night, Yeo put them on a line with Matt Cooke and the youngsters, both 21, responded with their best games of the young season in a 2-1 loss at Florida.

"Those guys, they're just going to keep getting more opportunities," Yeo said. "They deserve it. So I'm going to start getting those guys out there (more) if they can keep playing like that. They just keep winning more and more opportunities and I'm ready to give it to them."

The young players have been some of the brightest spots in an otherwise dull first nine games.

Still, any talk of the team's young players begins with Brodin, 20.

Heading into the season, Yeo met with Brodin. After a stellar rookie campaign, the Wild wanted more offense from the slick-skating Swede. Asking for anything more than his rookie season seemed like a stretch.

But after scoring the Wild's lone goal Saturday night, Brodin leads all NHL defensemen in goals.

"Unbelievable," Yeo said. "He just keeps growing. We keep seeing the foundation of his game, the defensive game, almost seems to be improving. But the area we were hoping that he would grow -- the offensive side of it -- just keeps getting better."

Despite the strong play from the youngsters, which has occurred without 21-year-old forward Charlie Coyle, the Wild will take a three-game losing streak into Tuesday's home date with Nashville.

But as some of the team's top veterans struggle to net goals, Niederreiter and Granlund have stepped up their games.

Niederreiter has four points in nine games, and although he has taken unnecessary penalties in the offensive zone, he has been one of the team's best players along the boards.

Granlund continues to create opportunities for teammates and has had plenty of scoring chances, but like the rest of the team, he hasn't turned them into goals.

"If he keeps getting chances, it's just a matter of time," Yeo said. "That's a good sign. I still think that there are times that he can shoot the puck a little bit more, be a little more assertive."

After Saturday night's loss, Yeo continued to look at the positives, the biggest of which has been the play of the youngsters.

"That's one thing to remember is we have a lot of young kids in the lineup," he said. "We've said this many times. Quite often you expect inconsistency, but they've been fairly consistent. There's going to be some mistakes here or there, but all the guys have been able to play their game and be effective in their game. And that's a compliment to them."